Focus Forward, a program where Oswego students serve as mentors to youth throughout Oswego County, is off and rolling through the fall season with fun activities for its partners.

Halloween provided an opportunity for Focus Forward to take part in some playful pumpkin painting with some of its young and bright mentees -- resulting in 110 festive gourds. 

Focus Forward pairs college-student mentors with middle and high-school students around the community. Schools included in this artistic event were Fulton Junior High, APW Junior/Senior High, Oswego Middle School, Oswego High School, and CiTi Bridges to Success. With all of these wonderful facilities participating, the mentors and mentees were able to paint a whopping one hundred and ten pumpkins! 

“Painting pumpkins was a great way to share my love of Halloween with the kids,” said Emily Pfleger, a senior broadcasting and mass communication major. “It was awesome to see how creative they can be! I particularly loved one of the students’ replicas of the poison apple from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” 

Other examples of images bestowed upon these pumpkins ranged from a creepy cyclops that looked ready to feast on anything it could find to a picturesque and tranquil forest scene. Some mentees decided to keep it classic though and simply made jack-o-lanterns or spooky ghosts. No matter the design or its relation to Halloween, it resulted in a good time for everyone involved as they got an opportunity to let loose artistically. 

“Painting pumpkins provided both the mentees and mentors a safe space for a creative outlet,” said Hannah McCormick, a junior double majoring in psychology and in cognitive science. “It was amazing seeing the kids expressing themselves through art! They really used the pumpkins as extensions of themselves.” 

Focus Forward will continue mentoring, bringing many more games, arts and crafts to younger learners through the end of the Fall semester and return after the college’s Winter Break. Some end-of-semester highlights will include celebrating remaining mentoring sessions with a theme of “Don’t Stress, We’ll Be Back Soon!” As part of this theme, mentors will talk about stress mitigation techniques and plan mindfulness activities. Younger mentees will create homemade stress balls and stress jars to take home.

In addition, Focus Forward continues to recruit new mentors for upcoming semesters on a rolling basis. Interested SUNY Oswego undergraduate students can read more and apply now by visiting the SUNY Oswego Focus Forward website.